WORK on converting the old Royal Alex into flats has now started in earnest. By the end of October the old nurses' quarters, which can be seen from Dyke Road,  had been partially demolished.

It is a bitter-sweet moment for many of us. Over the next couple of months the nurses quarters, the old laundry block, the Victoria villa and the Elizabeth ward on Clifton Hill will all go the same way.

But work on restoring the main building, which will be converted into flats, is also underway. Initially the contractors erected scaffolding to help protect the main building at the begining of October.

Demolition is likely to continue into the new year, according to the timetable that Taylor Wimpey has submitted to the council. Work on converting the main building into flats and building the new blocks of flats behind is likely to take three years.

On 23rd February the council’s planning committee voted unanimously to approve Taylor Wimpey's plan to convert the main hospital building. It was the culmination of the association's long campaign to save the Alex.

But the start of work was delayed for five months by legal red tape. On large schemes like this developers have to sign a section 106 agreement, that claws back some of the developers' profits for spending on local schools and parks.

First the council put in an unexpected demand for an extra £20,000 of section 106 money. Taylor Wimpey disputed this at first but eventually agreed to pay up. Then with everything agreed this 12-page document got stuck in council intrays for a couple of months.

It took the intervention of the chair and deputy chairman of the planning committee to get things moving again following a week in which most of the lead on the cupolas was stolen. 

The developers have also put in a planning application for a temporary two-storey marketing suite on the triangular green at the junction of Clifton Hill and Dyke Road. After talks with the MCHA the developers have agreed to lower the height of this building to reduce its impact.

A PLANNING application to build a six-storey hotel on the old ice rink site at the top of Queen Square has been submitted by developers Stonehurst Estates. The 60-room hotel has been designed by Conran and Partners, which has Brighton offices in Queens Road. The council's planning committee was given a preview of the plans on 20th September.

The height of the new building would make it a dominating presence on the south side of St Nicholas’s churchyard. The hotel would be two storeys higher than the ridge of the existing buildings. The council's informal planning advice, which it issued in March 2009, said that any new building on the site should have a maximum of four storeys.

The association has written to Conran and partners expressing its disquet about the plans and saying that any planning application should follow the planning advice and be limited to four storeys.

The church and its churchyard are a Grade II star listed building. Wykeham Terrace,
immediately to the west of the ice rink site is also listed. The hotel, which is 5 metres from the back of the terrace’s small gardens, would have a major
impact on the terrace.

The MCHA is urging people to object to the planning application (BH2011/03227). The MCHA, in association with the St Nicholas Green Spaces Association, the St Nicholas Church PCC and the Wykeham Terrace Residents' Assocation have produced a leaflet outlining the reasons for objecting to the plans.

Click on the PDF to see the leaflet.

Newsletter 11, November 2011

Page last updated on Saturday 22nd October